I'm home here with the boys, enjoying a relatively lazy day. I'm casually straightening the dwelling up, while periodically engaging the boys while they're doing their own things. S8 is playing the Wii. S4 was joining him earlier, but is now playing a silly game on my iPhone (if you've never seen PocketGod, it really entertains my S's.)
...
Yesterday was the court hearing, for the parenting coordinator (PC) assignment. The ex was there with her L, me with mine, and then there was the PC. The judge didn't have to waste any time on us, since the differences between what each party wanted to assign to the PC was quickly resolved with no fuss -- the consent order was agreed to and signed and it was all over with in about 15 minutes.
The next step is for each of us, the ex and I, to schedule time with the PC so we can each give him our stories and catch him up on where we are. (Meanwhile I am also struggling with the shock to my finances for putting out his retainer fee. I say it again, ouch!)
I talked to my L after exiting the courtroom, and remarked that if xW and I could have agreed to agree like this before, with so little contention, then all of this expense and trouble could have been avoided. My atty. concurred -- she said we have come back full circle to where we were in our negotiations as they were a year ago. She seemed just as dumbfounded as I that this path was ever taken. She said she hoped that now that all of this was taken care of, then perhaps xW and I could realize some peace -- no, strike that, she said that I (not xW) might realize some peace.
I sure hope so. L asked if I was continuing to get the occasional email from xW, and I said yes, we were still trading those occasional barbs with each other -- only I haven't been responding or hardly at all, because there's just no way one can offer a rational response to some people's insane remarks.
As if to underscore my statement to my L, I received the following email from xW a couple of hours later:
Quote:
NCB,
All you had to do was communicate & sign the agreement we worked out with <her private mediator> which wasn't much different than what you finally signed & all this expense & drama could have been avoided.
xW
I chuckled to myself at the irony. I didn't respond to xW, but I did forward this to my atty. with a note reminding her of our conversation just an hour or so previously. The humor wasn't lost on her.
